Prime tract in Hutto sold
Florida-based developers will finish planning process.

By M.B. Taboada
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, February 01, 2007

A prime tract in Hutto that is bisected by the new Texas 130 toll road has been sold to a Florida-based company and will be developed as a mixed-use project.

Jacksonville-based Atlantic Coast Developers LLC, which focuses on mixed-use and retail developments, is making plans for the land after recently buying it from a local real estate broker and investment banker.

Atlantic Coast will be working on the project with New York-based Glenmont Capital Management LLC, Austin lawyer Bruce Morrison and J.P. Newman, vice president and partner with Principals Capital Funding Inc.

The project probably will include high-density residential and office space and about 145 acres of retail, Newman said. The developers probably will break ground in the next 12 months.

"This is a destination center for Hutto," Newman said. "This probably will be the most important retail space they have. It will be be a destination place, not just another square box center. . . . There will be some nice surprises."

Atlantic Coast President Bill Sulzbacher said it's too soon to comment on details.

"Any announcement would be premature," Sulzbacher said. "The important thing is we have purchased the land. Now we can finish the planning process."

Atlantic Coast bought the land from Keifer Marshall III and his partners, who called the tract the Hutto 400, based on its approximate acreage. They had hoped to bring in major retailers or possibly develop a mall on the land, west of FM 685 and south of U.S. 79.

But Marshall was unable to lock in long-term financing or lure tenants.

"We didn't have the development experience and capital to take it to the next level or the relationships with the end user, being retail, hotel, apartments," Marshall said. "We are pleased to pass the torch to the new buyers who do have the proper long-term capital structure and development experience that a project of this size and stature will need on a long-term basis."

Sulzbacher and Marshall declined to disclose the sale price.

The tract is in the path of growth. The major roadways, including the new Texas 130 toll road, that run along or through the property make it attractive.

"We're in a very dynamic location," Sulzbacher said. "It's growing rapidly."

Atlantic Coast has been developing mixed-use and retail projects since 2004.

Current projects include Avenues Walk, a 161-acre development in Jacksonville, Fla., that will include retail, residential and office space, and the Shoppes at Amelia Concourse in Nassau County, Fla., which includes big retail anchors.

Completed projects include Tallahassee's Governors Marketplace, a large shopping center with major retailers, and San Antonio's Forum at Olympia Parkway, a 1.2-million-square-foot "lifestyle center" that includes a community center, retail and entertainment.